Uncovering major red flags

[premedgirl9]

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Would anyone be willing to tell me if it would be a red flag in admissions if your only shadowing experience was with a family member, say for approximately for 40-60 hours (across several months, of course). Would this make your hours less valuable, or decrease your competitiveness?

Edit: Just to be clear, I wouldn't be asking this person for a LOR nor would this be the only "clinical experience" on my application

 

[HomeSkool]

Would this make your hours less valuable, or decrease your competitiveness?

Hope this helps.

 

[Robin-jay]

Shadow non-family members.

 

[Robin-jay]

I dunno. I shadowed a family member who was a primary care Doc and wrote in some secondaries about it. I felt shadowing her was better than any of the other docs, because she was super open and honest about her feelings re medicine, challenges she has had, her thoughts about the future.

It wasn't my only shadowing tho.

Some applications explicitly state "Do not talk about family members who you have shadowed", and its also just not good to in general.

Part of shadowing is to get you out of your comfort zone, and also definitely don't have family members write you an LOR.

 

[bioboy23]

View attachment 227528

Hope this helps.

So if we have shadowed a family member and several non-family members, just don’t list it?

 

[HomeSkool]

So if we have shadowed a family member and several non-family members, just don’t list it?

Count the hours spent shadowing non-relatives, omit time spent shadowing family. Take Your Child To Work Day might help you think about a future specialty, but it doesn't count for AMCAS purposes.

Edit: Just to be clear, I wouldn't be asking this person for a LOR nor would this be the only "clinical experience" on my application

Still no.

 

[bioboy23]

Count the hours spent shadowing non-relatives, omit time spent shadowing family. Take Your Child To Work Day might help you think about a future specialty, but it doesn't count for AMCAS purposes.

Makes sense lol. Thanks!

 

[premedgirl9]

Would anyone be willing to tell me if it would be a red flag in admissions if your only shadowing experience was with a family member, say for approximately for 40-60 hours (across several months, of course). Would this make your hours less valuable, or decrease your competitiveness?

Count the hours spent shadowing non-relatives, omit time spent shadowing family. Take Your Child To Work Day might help you think about a future specialty, but it doesn't count for AMCAS purposes.


Still no.

After viewing previous threads, it seems as if people are split on this concern. Nevertheless, thank you for your input. I'm curious to know how it would be fair to hold this against someone? After all, isn't shadowing a doctor still shadowing, regardless of who they are.

 

[HomeSkool]

After viewing previous threads, it seems as if people are split on this concern. Nevertheless, I'm curious to know how it would be fair to hold this against someone?

Because it's very unprofessional to use family as a stepping stone for career building, which is how this would be seen. As @Robin-jay pointed out, some schools explicitly tell you not to do this. The others just assume they don't have to tell you.


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[21Rush12]

Because it's very unprofessional to use family as a stepping stone for career building, which is how this would be seen. As @Robin-jay pointed out, some schools explicitly tell you not to do this. The others just assume they don't have to tell you.


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*cough* Unless you’re running for office *cough*

 

[infectiousdisease101]

Shadowing a family member? Noob.

Jokes aside, it's not that hard to shadow without connections. I've shadowed 4 physicians in 4 different departments all within a 1 year period. No prior connections. I took the initiative and contacted them.

Serious question, if OP has a last name that is common in a lot of people in their race or ethnic group, e.g. Sanchez or Ramirez for Latinos, Mexicans or Nguyen for Vietnamese, would adcoms know they're related? OP can just deny it and tell the family member to deny any familial relationship.

 

[LizzyM]

Shadowing a family member? Noob.

Jokes aside, it's not that hard to shadow without connections. I've shadowed 4 physicians in 4 different departments all within a 1 year period. No prior connections. I took the initiative and contacted them.

Serious question, if OP has a last name that is common in a lot of people in their race or ethnic group, e.g. Sanchez or Ramirez for Latinos, Mexicans or Nguyen for Vietnamese, would adcoms know they're related? OP can just deny it and tell the family member to deny any familial relationship.

Applicant can just lie on the application and tell the family member to lie, too??

Get your family member to introduce you to a colleague who is not related to you. After you shadow for awhile, ask that person to refer you to another collegue, perhaps in a different specialty (eg, you shadow a primary care doc and ask for a referral to a cardiologist or neurologist with whom the first doc has a professional relationship). Use that second contact to identify a third doc and so on.